Joist hangers are safe if installed correctly. Hanging joists is by no means new. You typically need to hang a joist if the top of the joist needs to be in the same plane as the beam that supports it.

The biggest problem I’ve seen with joist hangers of all types is if the wrong nails were used when installing them. All too often, rookie carpenters or do-it-yourself homeowners will install ...

Joist hangers require specific nails, and for ACQ lumber they need to meet the current corrosion-resistance standards. Unwitting builders, probably even now, might not have bothered to use nails ...

Robert even sent some of the rusted joist hanger nails. A few of them had lost well over 60% of the steel! The bottom of several hangers had holes in them, and the remaining metal was paper thin.

The most common joist hanger I find on decks is a LUS28*. This joist hanger can be used with 2x8 and 2x10 joists. Now that I know which hanger I'm using, I can go to the Simpson Strong-Tie web ...

The joist hanger on the left was from a home 13 miles from Chesapeake Bay in Baltimore. Imagine what it might have looked like had the house been built a few hundred feet from an ocean beach.